1. Field of the Invention
The invention is in the field of imaging and photography and in special it relates to several image sensors viewing a common scene and to the presentation of the streams of images without losing orientation on transition between the sensors.
2. Description of Related Art
It is quite common currently to have several image sensors or video cameras viewing the same scene. Also, a camera may have several viewing configurations, zooming factors or view directions for example. Such imaging systems are disposed on airborne platforms, in airports, traffic systems, etc. The most sensitive scenes are supervised by a human operator who may switch between cameras or between camera configurations. In particular, a sensor having switchable zooming factor may be switched by an operator in a discontinuous manner. Such a discontinuous switchable zoom optics may be used in an airborne surveillance platform. A remote controller in a control room may watch a screen divided to a 3×3 image matrix presenting nine streams of images captured simultaneously by nine cameras covering a scene of interest with images capturing large fields of view. A second full screen presents a stream of images from a selected camera, whereas the controller determines the selected camera and its field of view or zooming factor using a joystick module or a touch screen. Suppose that the controller noticed that an event of interest is occurring in a certain location and she switches the full screen from a first camera to a second camera and/or switch the wide field of view to a narrow field of view. At that moment of transition, the controller might lose orientation of the scene since it is now shown from another direction and/or with a entirely different field of view. Thus, it is desirable to make such switching or transition more natural, such that it seems like a stream of images emitted from a single camera moving gradually from the first viewing direction to the second viewing direction, or changing the field of view continuously.
EP 95301408.1 application by the same applicant as the current disclosure describes method and apparatus for smoothing out stepwise changes of field of view (FOV). However, it deals only with changing field of view, or zooming (in and out) while the present application deals with other changes of the viewing configuration. In addition, the current application discloses several novel features and techniques which may be used for a variety of viewing configuration transitions, including change of FOV.
It would be advantageous to provide a system and a method to smoothly integrate streams of images of a common scene.